At present, a port form of a data card is generally fixed, and a port form of one data card may be only Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) or modem. If there is a need to switch to a different port form, data card software needs to be upgraded to satisfy the need. For example, to switch a data card from a modem form to a hilink form, an upgrade to a hilink data card is required; and to switch a data card from a hilink form to a modem form, an upgrade to a modem data card is required. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 explain how switching is performed between the two forms. Firstly, a data card is inserted into a data card switching apparatus (which is generally a computer or a built-in device), and data card software in the data card switching apparatus is upgraded to implement data card switching. An upgrade to modem data card software switches a data card to a modem form, and an upgrade to hilink data card software switches a data card to a hilink form. In addition, each switching requires an upgrade to a corresponding form of data card software.
In the prior art, because mode switching of a data card can be performed only by upgrading data card software, for data cards that have already been sold, meeting user requirements for mode switching by upgrading data card software causes high maintenance costs.